15 minutes at 100%?

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MagisterMundi
MagisterMundi Posts: 11 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello all,

I have very limited time in my day, and I tend to get bored while working out. I also have limited equipment/space available at my apartment building's rec center, and I'm too poor for a gym membership.

So, with those limitations in mind, I've started doing 15 minute exercises on the one and only elliptical. For those 15 minutes, I consistently stay at 90-100% of my maximum heart rate. Right now I'm using the interval setting on the machine for different resistance levels. After my workout I'm completely spent and have shaky legs, but I don't mind.

Is this a good way to spend my 15 minutes? Is there an advantage to taking breaks during that period of time as far as quality of exercise goes, or is simply going all-out if you're able a good way to go? In the past I've done longer endurance workouts (45 minutes) at a lower steady heart rate, but that wasn't working for me, which is why I'm trying this.

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  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    What does success look like for you? Without knowing your objective nobody can know whether it's a good way to achieve them.
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
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    MeanderingMammal wrote: »
    What does success look like for you? Without knowing your objective nobody can know whether it's a good way to achieve them.

    What he said.

    If you outline what your top 3 goals are in order of importance then you will get much better advice.
  • pkw58
    pkw58 Posts: 2,039 Member
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    I think if your exercise makes you feel better than keep it up - and outline your goals.. I have found that I am upping all my goals this winter.
  • MagisterMundi
    MagisterMundi Posts: 11 Member
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    My goals are to be as productive in the 15 minutes I have available to me as I possibly can be. Overall cardio health is my first priority, with a plan of eventually working strength training in when I have both the time and the routine down.

    Also, I should mention that I'm doing these 15 minute exercises every day.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    MagisterMundi wrote: »
    My goals are to be as productive in the 15 minutes I have available to me as I possibly can be.

    I'm not sure that's any clearer to be honest, but it doesn't sound as if you're just focussed on calorie expenditure, which is probably a good thing..
    Overall cardio health is my first priority

    CV health benefits form any training, so if all you're doing is 15 minutes then it'll be of benefit. You'll get more value from mixing longer steady state, to build the cardiac base, with threshold intensity sessions and higher intensity intervals. Those three modes of exercise work together to give you a more rounded benefit.

    I'd be sceptical that you're sustaining 90-100% MHR for 15 minutes, in the anaerobic range most people can only sustain 3-4 minutes at a time before having to come down again. That suggests that you're potentially threshold training, which is beneficial but provides better gains when built on a solid base.

    Personally I wouldn't do a threshold run until after I'd warmed up for 15 minutes, and followed by a 15 minute cool down.

  • DoingitWell
    DoingitWell Posts: 560 Member
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    Have you tried HIIT? Seems like it will fit into your 15 minutes including cool down easily. Also remember results depend more on what you eat than what you burn.
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
    edited November 2014
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    MagisterMundi wrote: »
    Overall cardio health is my first priority

    Then you're better off going back to the longer, low intensity sessions of 45 minutes and having 1-2 sessions of this type of training per week at most in my opinion (after warming up sufficiently.)

    You will get a much broader level of fitness this way, build a better aerobic base, reduce risk of injury, reduce the risk of overloading your body due to multiple stressors as well as getting some anaerobic activation.

    If you keep you diet in check you will also start looking quote good as well.

  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    DoingitWell wrote: »
    Have you tried HIIT?

    The suggestion of 15 minutes of intervals, all in the anaerobic range would be more demanding than doing HIIT. Hence my caveats in the previous post.

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